The Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission released a statement yesterday indicating it would not be taking any action in relation to allegations about former Minister Merri Rose. The allegations were referred to the Commission on Friday by Nationals frontbencher Rob Messenger.
The CMC says that no additional information has been provided in addition to material already with the Commission. However, Crikey understands that the Commission received a transcript of Messenger’s interview with a former Rose staffer corroborating elements of the statement by Rose’s former personal secretary Barbara Daddow, which was the basis for the Commission’s previous investigation.
Daddow declined to assist the Commission and died in 2006. Crikey has been told that Ms Daddow destroyed documents relating to her employment by Rose, out of fear the material would make her a target of the Queensland Government.
Peter Beattie reacted furiously to the allegations, threatening litigation. He appeared to miss the point that the allegations related entirely to actions by Merri Rose.
As Crikey has consistently said, the primary issue here is the way politicians treat their personal staff. Ms Daddow went through an appalling ordeal as a consequence of her time with Rose, and former colleagues say it directly contributed to her death. Another staff member of Rose has also since died. Perhaps contrary to Mr Beattie’s view, people’s lives are more important than politicians’ reputations. There is still no adequate accountability mechanism for the management of staff by politicians except the clumsy method of public exposure.
Stepping back from the Merri Rose case, let’s name some of the most recent instances of politicians’ treatment of those who work for them:
- Troy Buswell’s chair-sniffing and bra-snapping antics;
- Queensland Emergency Services Minister Pat Purcell physically assaulting two public servants, denying it for months until the eve of a trial on the matter, and then admitting it;
- The sacking of Gillian Sneddon after she helped reveal the crimes of Milton Orkopoulos;
- WA Minister Fran Logan’s staffer threesome fantasies;
- The treatment of Teresa Mullan by the Beattie Government over the “Winegate” affair;
- Kevin Rudd telling public servants to quit complaining because their workload was going to get worse.
Politicians continue to offer soothing words about work-life balance and fair employment practices. Many of them don’t come close to practising what they preach. It’s called hypocrisy, and it’s a vital ingredient in public life. But not when it hurts and kills people.
It would now be fair to assume that the discovery of Osama Bin Laden in the Qld parliament wouldn’t raise this lot from their armchairs! So nothing in the ghastly saga grabs them. Try sanctioned Workcover claims for bullying and two deaths all linked to the same workplace of the same MP who then turns around and to put it mildly bullies a Premier so fiercely, she lands in the slammer for blackmail and extortion? No one is allowed to know the nature of her intimidation of the Premier but I bet the details of how she preyed on ‘just the hired help’ were fully disclosed. Surely staff were given immunity to make statements without fear of losing their jobs? From the drivers of this Bonny and Clyde to bureaucrats, they should all have been granted protection. It seems the old Premier wanted the matter settled for himself at the weekend. He came out punching the air, looking more like the bullying MP he put behind bars. “MY family, MY kids shouldn’t have to be put through this”. The “I-me-my” Premier who didn’t need ‘this crap’ wants to get on with his life. Er…he ought to be thankful he has one. Two workers in his workplace environment lost theirs. What about their families and what about their kids. This is a public servant who needs to pull his head in quite frankly and make one huge apology for being such a crass, insensitive egotist. Rudd should also send him too, to behaviour management classes. At least the CMC could have recommended that – even a slap on the wrist. But he got sent overseas with a huge stench over his personal life and really, that’s not Trade Commissioner material. Nor does he sound much like the quintessential Premier the ALP would have him be. Shame the CMC is clearly a toothless tiger.
Whoa to Cathy! Major anger there. Beattie did however, react like someone with a sense of shame. If he’d really moved on with a genuinely clear conscience the second ‘reading’ of a fully sick episode should have drawn a more thoughtful response. But as usual, he launched into really offensive confrontational bluff-speak that only cemented he had no insight whatsoever on what really had transpired. He’s a lost cause much like the CMC. A body supposedly set up to guide, advise and arbitrate on public service delinquency. It’s not there to give a clean bill of health without recommendations when mutant governance presents as it did with the Beatie-Rose saga. The CMC is there as a deterrent. If it can’t discourage by setting penalties then it should call for wider powers. Lets face it, Merri Rose hit on Beattie. No one else. She could have called on loads of other contacts, but she chose him. A bush lawyer can see that Rose and Beattie had a particular connection as can an entire nation. Unfortunately, not the CMC.
Peter Beattie please go away… I could not image anything so grotesque as an image of Beattie bonking a woman… ugh….